New Species - 4 new Brookesia Species

I wanted to let you all know that a paper came out today describing 4 new Brookesia species: Brookesia confidens, Brookesia desperata, Brookesia micra, and Brookesia tristis.

The smallest of these, Brookesia micra, reaches only 24mm in total length (including tail) with males being only 16mm SVL, making it the smallest chameleon species and among the smallest vertebrates in the world. Its scientific name is obviously related to its small size. Photos of this species can be seen in this article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...The-mini-meleon-smallest-reptiles-planet.html

All four of these new species are from extremely limited ranges and therefore are likely to be highly threatened by deforestation. Brookesia desperata, for instance is found only in a small rainforest remnant and is named for its desperate conservation state. Brookesia tristis is similarly named ("tristis" means "sad"). As another example, Brookesia micra is from a small islet that is only 115 ha in size.

Here is the reference to the new paper:

F. Glaw, J. Köhler, T. Townsend, M. Vences: Rivaling the World's Smallest Reptiles: Discovery of Miniaturized and Microendemic New Species of Leaf Chameleons (Brookesia) from Northern Madagascar. PLoS ONE (DOI 0031314)

Chris

Thanks Chris! This is BIG news.

Thanks Chris! Very interesting but I must disagree with Chuck... This is VERY VERY small NEWS!

Fascinating. Interestingly, based on the published pictures, Brookesia micra looks more like a 'standard' chameleon than all of the other Brookesia species I have seen.

That is so cool, I would love to see a baby or even an egg of these tiny little critters.
I am sure someday even smaller ones will be discovered..

Here's a link to the article itself. Its open access so anyone should be able to download it: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0031314

Chris

cool article thanks for link.

very cool!

Great article thanks for the link.

Great article man! Thanks!